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Four Seasons In Japan by Nick Bradley

May31

Serenely Beautiful

Four Seasons In Japan by Nick Bradley is a gentle contemporary novel that I read in just one sitting.

Japanese fiction is soothing for the soul, and Four Seasons In Japan is no exception. There is a calmness and an ethereal beauty to the story.

This is a book within a book as we meet a young translator whose love for novels has gone cold. An accidental encounter with a book left behind on a train, awakens her passion for books once more.

The reader travels from Tokyo to rural Japan as a character goes to stay with his grandmother. He longs to find himself and to decide what to do with his life. Pressure from his mother to become a doctor has unsettled him.

We were created to follow our own dreams and not the dreams of others.

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The Woman In The White Kimono by Ana Johns

May30

Lost & Found

The Woman In The White Kimono by Ana Johns is a powerful and heartbreaking dual timeline novel that I just could not put down. Though it is a fictional story, it is based on fact.

The action is set in Japan in 1957 and also in present day America and Japan. The chapters alternate between the two periods. In present day a young woman searches for the truth about her father’s navy career that took him to the Far East. A deathbed revelation means that she travels to Japan to find out the truth.

Japan in 1957 was very different to modern Japan. Fresh in the minds of its’ people was World War II and the dropping of the atomic bombs. Marriages and alliances with Americans were actively discouraged. Every family wanted their daughters to make fine matches with good Japanese families. Daughters who chose American partners were cast out. Any babies that were of mixed race, and especially those born to single girls were unwanted at best, cruelly denied life at worst.

The reader follows a character to a dreadful, beyond words, maternity home that was actually based on real life.

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The Bird In The Bamboo Cage by Hazel Gaynor

May21

Sunflower Seeds

The Bird In The Bamboo Cage by Hazel Gaynor is an incredibly powerful historical novel that will educate you as you read. It is based on true life events, making the book even more powerful.

Much is known about the war in Europe during World War II but far less is known about the war in the Pacific – this book helps to rectify this.

The story opens in China during 1941 at the Chefoo Missionary School. Many will realise the significance of the year as the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, making war in the Far East a certainty. As the Japanese walked into China, they occupied the missionary school. The whole school moved twice to different internment camps, each one worse than the last. The Japanese guards were incredibly cruel but there were those who maintained their humanity, showing little pockets of kindness.

The tale is told through two alternating points of view – a teacher and a pupil. Their experiences are similar but different as the teacher tries to cushion her pupils from the horrors. Even within the camps, school learning and routines continued, in order to help maintain some familiarity.

In the filth and the cruelty bonds were formed, linking survivors together forever. If you weren’t there, you could never understand what happened.

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Silent Parade by Keigo Higashino

May18

A Thinking Man’s Novel

Silent Parade by Keigo Higashino is an intriguing Japanese contemporary crime suspense that enthralled me from the start. It is part of A Detective Galiled series but can be read as a stand-alone.

Keigo Higashino has produced a complex plotline which is extremely well thought out. It is definitely a thinking-man’s novel as there were twists and turns before the jaw-dropping reveal. Silent Parade is a roller coaster ride, buckle up and see where the author takes you!

The action is in a suburb of Tokyo as the reader is treated to an annual parade and ‘experiences’ the café culture.

In a close-knit neighbourhood, when one of their own is murdered, friends and neighbours draw together. When the culprit is apprehended and subsequently released, a vigilante culture emerges. Locals are determined to do what the police cannot.

A long list of suspects emerges but not one single perpetrator. If no one confesses, how will the police catch the guilty one?

A long buried cold case is unearthed in present day.  Lack of evidence put the case to bed twenty three years ago. Is history doomed to repeat itself?

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